Carly Fiorina

Former CEO, Hewlett-Packard

Carly Fiorina is an American businesswoman, who served as chief executive officer at Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005. Prior to joining Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina served as an executive vice president at AT&T, and orchestrated the spinoff and initial public offering of Lucent, which became the most successful initial public offering in United States history up to that point in time.

In 1998, Fortune magazine named her the "most powerful woman in business" in their inaugural listing. A year after joining Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina also became the company's chairman of the board. With the support of the board of directors, she completed a controversial merger with rival Compaq in 2002. Fiorina stepped down from Hewlett-Packard in 2005, with the company stating that Fiorina had put in place "a plan that has given HP the capabilities to compete and win."

In 2008, Fiorina served as a top economic advisor to Republican presidential candidate John McCain. She now sits on several corporate boards of directors, is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School, and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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